SELLAFIELD CONTRACTOR SHUFFLES TOP MANAGEMENT

URS-led Nuclear Management Partners announced Friday a switch in top management at the U.K.’s Sellafield site, moving Todd Wright from managing director to Chairman of the Board of Sellafield Limited, with former Executive Director Tony Price taking Wright’s post. Wright has been at Sellafield for five years and was managing director for two years. But management at the site was criticized recently in reports from the U.K. National Audit Office late last year and a Parliamentary committee early this year. In late January NMP brought Price in after he held the position of Director of Major Projects at Atkins. Price also served at Sellafield between 2001 and 2007.

NMP has said that the management switch was unrelated to the critical reports, and is linked to an upcoming new phase for site cleanup. “Todd has done a magnificent job; Sellafield’s safety record is the best it has ever been and we have produced the first credible plan for the future of the site. And we have delivered £540 million in efficiencies for the UK taxpayer and built a strong foundation for the future,” NMP Chairman Tom Zarges said in a statement. “We are now moving into a new phase of the contract, using our acquired experience to accelerate clean-up and decommissioning. Tony will lead us into that phase and his appointment is the latest step in NMP’s restructuring of Sellafield Ltd.”